Key Concept 4.2. New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production
As you might expect,contacts
among the Americas, Oceania, and Afro-Eurasia had profound effects that still resonate today.
In the era c. 1450-c.1750,societies changed and so did the means of producing
goods.Not everything changed, of course. Continuities remained in social
structures; for example elite still ran the show everywhere. In China, one
continuity was that patriarchy remained strong.
I. New Political and Economic elite Groups
A. Political Elites
1. China
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2. Latin America
- The new ruling class in Latin America was the Creole elites.
- Settlers in America who were born in Spain or Portugal were called the Peninsulares because they came from the Liberian Peninsula. They were at the top of Latin American society and government.
- Next of the societal pyramid were the Creoles those Europeans born in the Americas.
- Over time, s the number of Peninsulares faded and the number of Creoles increased, the distinction between the two faded as well.
- Below the elites in Latin America were a wide variety of mixed –race people, called mestizos. Essentially the more European blood a person had(or, conventionally,the white skin, the higher they were on the Latin American Social ladder.people were strong Amerindian or African features tended to be lower on the social ladder.
3. North American British and
French colonies.
- In the thirteen English colonies or New France -- from northeast Canada into the Ohio River valley – there was much less mixing of races.
- European elites, such as large landowners or wealthy merchants, established themselves at the top of colonial society, and other “whites” such as small farmers, craftspeople, and indentured servants were lower on the socio-economic pyramid.
- No matter how poor, a white person was always above Indian and African slaves.
B. Economic Elites
- In Europe, new economic elites rose out of the merchant class. Entrepreneurs who did well ihn the global trade game were rewarded with financial success and social status.
- In china, merchants were considered to be of low social status, but they enjoyed the benefits of wealth.
- Outside China, wealthy merchants were often members of the social elite in every major port city in the world.
Traditional peasant agriculture increased and changed, plantations expanded, and demand for labor increased. These changes both fed and responded to growing global demand for raw materials and finished products.
- Peasant labor intensified in many regions (Frontier settlements in Siberia Russia, Cotton textiles in India, Silk production in China)
- Slavery in Africa continued both the traditional incorporation of slaves into households and the export of slaves to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
- The growth of the plantation economyincreased the demand for slaves in the Americas.
- Colonial economies in the Americas depended on a range of coerced labor (Chattel slavery, Indentured servitude, Encomienda & Hacienda systems, Spanish adaptation of the Incan mita)
As new social and political elites changed, they also restructured new ethnic, racial, and gender hierarchies.
- Both imperial conquests and widening global economic opportunities contributed to the formation of new political and economic elites (Manchus in China, Creoles in Spanish America, European Gentry, Urban commercial entrepreneurs in major port cities around the world)
- The power of existing political and economic elites (Zamindars in the Mughal Empire, Nobility in Europe, Daimyo in Japan) fluctuated as they confronted new challenges to their ability to affect the policies of the increasingly powerful monarchs and leaders.
- Some notable gender and family restructuring (The dependence of European men on Southeast Asian women for conducting trade, smaller family size in Europe) occurred, including the demographic changes in Africa that resulted from the slave trades.
- The massive demographic changes in the Americas resulted in new ethnic and racial classifications (mestizo, mulatto, creole)
II. Development in Christianity
and Europe Science
A. Latin Americans Synthesized Catholicism and Local Traditional Faiths.
A. Latin Americans Synthesized Catholicism and Local Traditional Faiths.
1.One of the requirements of a global religion is that it adapt to local customs. Christianity, in its Catholic form, did so in Latin America.
2.With official sponsorship from both the Church and European rulers, missionaries in Latin America had great success, but the religion that emerged after encounters with traditional beliefs was not the same as when it arrived from Europe.
2.With official sponsorship from both the Church and European rulers, missionaries in Latin America had great success, but the religion that emerged after encounters with traditional beliefs was not the same as when it arrived from Europe.
- In Mexico for example, many Christian saints took on the same responsibilities as the pre-colonial gods they replaced. As had been done before Christianity arrived, offerings were made and votive candles lit in prayer asking for divine intercession.
- In the Caribbean, a mix of African religios abd Christianity merged to produce Vodun, or voodoo.
B. Reformation divided the Christian Church and Revived its Missionary Activity.
1. At the same time that Western Europe was settling the Americas and establishing trade in the Indian Ocean, the Christian church in Western European was becoming unsettled.
2. A Roman Catholic priest and scholar named Martin Luther began the protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century,challenging the authority and lifestyle of some Catholic leaders,including the pope. He rejected many teachings of the Catholic tradition.
1. At the same time that Western Europe was settling the Americas and establishing trade in the Indian Ocean, the Christian church in Western European was becoming unsettled.
2. A Roman Catholic priest and scholar named Martin Luther began the protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century,challenging the authority and lifestyle of some Catholic leaders,including the pope. He rejected many teachings of the Catholic tradition.
- ‘Protestant’ because he and his followers protested what they saw as abuses of power and privilege practiced by some in Catholic leadership.
- “Reformation” because Luther believed his ideas would reform Christianity. For example, he rejected the Catholic teachings of the day such as the spiritual superiority of the clergy and the sale of ‘indulgences’ to the faithful. indulgences were documents proclaiming that sins were forgiven.
- Luther’s concept of equality of all believers before God struck a chord with many in Europe, and his ideas became popular among political leaders. Henry V111of England broke with the church in Rome and established the Anglican 9English)Church because of Luther’s ideas.
- What Protestantism did not offer was an official role in the church for women, as Catholism did. Women held leadership positions within the Catholic church serving as nuns in convents and schools.
3. The Catholic church responded
to Protestant Reformation with a reformation of its own. Some of Luther’s
objections, such as the buying of indulgences, were addressed.
> They called themselves the ‘Army of the pope.”
> They were particularly effective in winning conversations in Latin America and in reversing gains made by Protestants in Poland.
- The greatest global effect of Catholic Reformation was the formation of the Jesuits.
> They called themselves the ‘Army of the pope.”
> They were particularly effective in winning conversations in Latin America and in reversing gains made by Protestants in Poland.
4. Jusuit missionaries in China
had a different kind of success- not so much spiritual because relatively few
Chinese accepted Christianity, but rather academic and scientific.
- The Ming and Qing emperors appointed Jesuit diplomats from Europe to head the Bureau of Astronomy.
- Jesuits brought scientific and mathematical information from Europe that impressed the Chinese- not an easy thing to do.
- This marked a turning point in global leadership in technology from east to West in this era.
C. Europe's Scientific Revolution
1. Since the Renaissance, European scientists had been accumulating and defining scientific and mathematical data garnered a low along trade routes through interaction with Muslim and Chinese scholars.
i. The monarchs of European nations in the 15th century through 17th centuries (such as Spain, Portugal, England, and France) sponsored men and women who conducted scientific research with the hope that new technology might give their country a competitive edge in world markets.
– For example, after Columbus returned from the Americas, monarchs started funding experiments designed to determine longitude at sea.
Determining which longitude a ship was on was not figured out until the mid-18th century when British clockmaker John Harrison claimed his governments price for inventing an accurate see: leaked out that quickly determined longitude.
2. The scientific revolutions long-term effects on West society was to reduce peoples paid in divine explanation of life's mysteries. The Christian church still had millions of followers, but Westerners began to look to and depend more on science for answers to society's challenges. That tendency led to the Industrial Revolution
1. Since the Renaissance, European scientists had been accumulating and defining scientific and mathematical data garnered a low along trade routes through interaction with Muslim and Chinese scholars.
i. The monarchs of European nations in the 15th century through 17th centuries (such as Spain, Portugal, England, and France) sponsored men and women who conducted scientific research with the hope that new technology might give their country a competitive edge in world markets.
– For example, after Columbus returned from the Americas, monarchs started funding experiments designed to determine longitude at sea.
Determining which longitude a ship was on was not figured out until the mid-18th century when British clockmaker John Harrison claimed his governments price for inventing an accurate see: leaked out that quickly determined longitude.
2. The scientific revolutions long-term effects on West society was to reduce peoples paid in divine explanation of life's mysteries. The Christian church still had millions of followers, but Westerners began to look to and depend more on science for answers to society's challenges. That tendency led to the Industrial Revolution
III. Developments in labor Systems
The inclusion of Americas and Oceania into the global systems of exchange expanded the world economy. This change had a major effect on labor systems around the world.
A. Peasant labor increased in Russia, India and China.
1. As a result of increased requirements for goods to trade on the new global market, Russia expanded into Siberia and began to export valuable furs, especially to the newly rich European market.
i. Peasants were involved in the trapping and processing of the furs and were also involved with farming large tracts of land owned by Russia's elite class.
ii..the potato, imported from Peru at, became a staple of the Russian diet .
1. As a result of increased requirements for goods to trade on the new global market, Russia expanded into Siberia and began to export valuable furs, especially to the newly rich European market.
i. Peasants were involved in the trapping and processing of the furs and were also involved with farming large tracts of land owned by Russia's elite class.
ii..the potato, imported from Peru at, became a staple of the Russian diet .
B. Slavery intensified in Africa and greatly affected its population.1. In Africa, the practice of slavery continued, and the exportation of slaves to the Americas are Europeans and North into the Mediterranean and Indian ocean area by Muslim Arabs intensified because of the need for labor in the new global economy.
i. Slaves sent to the Americas worked under harsh conditions on sugar plantations in the Caribbean region and in Brazil.
ii. one indication of the harsh conditions on sugar plantation was that life expectancy was brief – three years on average, according to studies.
2. The loss of people out of Africa to slavery – mostly men – had a significant impact on African demography. Population decline and the once -patriarchal social structure was severely disrupted.
i. Slaves sent to the Americas worked under harsh conditions on sugar plantations in the Caribbean region and in Brazil.
ii. one indication of the harsh conditions on sugar plantation was that life expectancy was brief – three years on average, according to studies.
2. The loss of people out of Africa to slavery – mostly men – had a significant impact on African demography. Population decline and the once -patriarchal social structure was severely disrupted.
C. The Encomienda and Mita Systems supplemented slavery in Latin America.1. Spanish colonists used American Indians who survived the disease pandemics for their labor needs.
i. Under the encomienda system, the Crown grant that conquest of dollars and settlers large number of native laborers to work the land or, in the case of Peru, the world's largest silver mine at Potosy. That
2. The Inca mita system required its population to do public works service. It was adapted by the Spanish to become a system of forced labor.
i. Complaints of abuse by church and some government officials in Latin America that the crown in Spain to these systems but early 18th century.
ii. one well-known advocate for the welfare of the income people was the monk Bartolome De las Casas.
i. Under the encomienda system, the Crown grant that conquest of dollars and settlers large number of native laborers to work the land or, in the case of Peru, the world's largest silver mine at Potosy. That
2. The Inca mita system required its population to do public works service. It was adapted by the Spanish to become a system of forced labor.
i. Complaints of abuse by church and some government officials in Latin America that the crown in Spain to these systems but early 18th century.
ii. one well-known advocate for the welfare of the income people was the monk Bartolome De las Casas.
D. Indentured Servitude
1. Americas, Europeans hired indentured servants when slaves were not readily available.
i. In the English colonies of North America. Any indentured servant from England was "hired"by a sponsor in the colonies to work with no pay for about seven years.
ii. and indentured servant might learn a trade as the craftsperson or as a domestic servant, but the most common duty was working as an agricultural laborer.
iii..slavery existed in these colonies, but the vast majority of African slaves were sent to the Caribbean or Brazil
iv. at the end of servitude, and indentured servant (assuming he or she had survived) was free of obligations to his or her master.
v. Thousands of people migrated from England to its colonies in North Africa as indentured servants.
1. Americas, Europeans hired indentured servants when slaves were not readily available.
i. In the English colonies of North America. Any indentured servant from England was "hired"by a sponsor in the colonies to work with no pay for about seven years.
ii. and indentured servant might learn a trade as the craftsperson or as a domestic servant, but the most common duty was working as an agricultural laborer.
iii..slavery existed in these colonies, but the vast majority of African slaves were sent to the Caribbean or Brazil
iv. at the end of servitude, and indentured servant (assuming he or she had survived) was free of obligations to his or her master.
v. Thousands of people migrated from England to its colonies in North Africa as indentured servants.